Sydney woman Nesrine Zahab has revealed for the first time how she fled the group in 2017 while pregnant, making it to the safety of the Kurdish-controlled area of north-eastern Syria and surrendering to the Syrian Democratic Forces.

She was taken first to the al-Hol camp near the city of Hasakah, close the front line of the war with Islamic State, before being transferred to al-Roj, another secure camp closer the relative safety of the Iraqi border.

Her son, Abdul Rahman, now four, was born in al-Roj in March 2018.

“He’s one of the first Australians that was actually born here,’’ Ms Zahab said.

“And at 29 days old, we were actually forced back into the war zone, without our permission. That was very hard with a newborn baby. I was actually prisoner-swapped.’’

The Australian has confirmed Ms Zahab was in the camps in 2018, and returned back there after the fall of Baghouz. Her story of being prisoner-swapped has never before been revealed publicly.

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Sydney woman Nesrine Zahab has revealed how she fled ISIS while pregnant, only to be returned to the extremist group with her newborn baby in a prisoner swap.

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Now 28 years old, Ms Zahab is a cousin of Islamic State recruiter Mohammad Zahab, and left Sydney in 2014, traveling to Syria after sneaking away from a family holiday in Lebanon.

Ms Zahab, who was 21 and studying at university when she left Australia, has previously said she had no intention of travelling to Syria and had gone to help refugees on the Turkish side of the border.

How she ended up in Syria has not been explained, but she later married Sydney man, the notorious Islamic State fighter Ahmed Merhi, in Syria. He is the father of her son. She was escaping with him when she was captured in late 2017.

Merhi is in prison in Baghdad. He lost a foot on the battlefield, and was transferred to Iraq by the Americans after being handed over by the Kurds.

Ms Zahab said by 2017 she was desperate to escape Islamic State and give birth to her child in safety – ideally in Australia.

“I really, really hoped I’d give birth back home. I had all these things, calculations in my head, where I’d say, ‘you can’t fly after 33 weeks’ so I have time, I have time, I can make it.’ But that didn’t happen.’’

After heading north and handing herself in to the Kurds, Ms Zahab was taken first to al-Hol, the teeming detainment camp which at its peak housed 70,000 women and children linked to Islamic State fighters.

Ten days later, she was transferred to al-Roj, where she delivered Abdul Rahman by caesarean section four months later.

Ms Zahab thought her time with Islamic State was over, and she could eventually make her way home. She openly declared her Australian citizenship to camp administrators and advised her family including her distraught parents in Australia of her whereabouts.

When Abdul Rahman was just 29 days old, she was told to pack a bag.

“My Dad’s waiting for me in Turkey,’’ she said she was told.

“And that I’ll be going back to Australia. I was ecstatic, I was so excited.

“I realised there were buses of people and they were mostly Turks. So I’m like, ‘okay, this is real, I’m actually going’.’’

But she wasn’t taken to Turkey to meet her father.

She said that in April 2018, she was taken to a remote mountain location and swapped back into the hands of Islamic State in a prisoner exchange freeing Kurdish captives.

“I was still recovering from my C-section, imagine the bumpy ride, this screaming, gassy baby, all that stuff.’’

She doesn’t know where the exchange took place, only that it was in the “plain desert’’. She was the only English speaker on the bus. It was likely close to Baghouz, the district in eastern Syria that Islamic State was gradually withdrawing into as its territorial losses mounted.

“We were just surrendered over back to the Islamic State,’’ she said.

“What happened was I was apparently the first prisoner-swap group. Everyone after was actually asked for their permission but I think we were like the test class. They tested with us and no-one actually asked.’’

Upon release, Ms Zahab found some of her husband’s friends, and eventually made it back to the other Australians. Islamic State leaders were furious with her.

“I was in big trouble. Because I actually got out of their land, you know.

“I did actually escape and I really wanted to give birth to my son back home or at least in safety. That’s all I wanted to do, I just wanted to ensure his safety. And once I accomplished that and I had got out and given birth I was taken back with no warning, no questions, not even a simple like ‘do you want to go?’

“Everyone got in big trouble for leaving in the first place.

“Like, you understand I went back without a husband and really I struggled to find my uncle then.

“First I found my husband’s friends and then they just led me around until I found some family.

“I was under watch for a good while if not the whole time I was there (back in Islamic State territory). They threatened that they would take my son away from me because he’s like, it’s kind of like he’s our baby kind of thing. So I wasn’t really allowed to manoeuvre around.

“But when the first chance I got to leave me and Mariam (Dabboussy) said ‘let’s go’.’’

Ms Dabboussy had been married to Ms Zahab’s cousin, Khaled Zahab, who had already been killed.

The pair decided they would try to find their way to an Australian consulate. There were none in Syria, so it’s likely they were heading for Turkey. They made several attempts to escape, and failed each time.

“We went smuggling, trying to get to the Australian consulate. That’s what we were actually told, we were never told to surrender and go to the camps. We were told get to a consulate, get to a consulate.

“It didn’t really happen. We got caught. We tried some more, still didn’t work out.’’

As the months wore on, Islamic State was pushed further back towards the Euphrates River, and the final battle of Baghouz raged from February to March 2019.

Ms Zahab once again headed north, with Ms Dabboussy, and again surrendered to the Kurds.

“It was such chaos that we were actually able to go without the threat of someone coming to rip my son out of my hands.’’

Ms Zahab and Abdul Rahman ended up back in al-Hol. A year later, they were transferred back to al-Roj.

Ms Zahab wants to go home to her family in Sydney.

“I’ve been trying to go back to Australia for four years,’’ she said.

“My bags are packed, I’m ready. My son grows every year but he really thinks he’s Australian. You say ‘where are you from’ and he says ‘Australia’.”

She said she posed no risk to the people of Australia.

“Come and meet us, come and speak to us. Ask around about us. Everyone that’s ever met us will give you a really good review actually.’’

She said Australian officials had visited the camp two months after she was prisoner-swapped in 2018.

“They literally just missed me. And they spoke to an Australian, they offered repatriation. Fate always goes through on my luck. If I was here, and I would have said yes, my son would have turned one at home.

“But they finally came back and called me in September last year, like ‘why didn’t we see you the first time’. I’m like ‘ask yourself, where were you? I actually got prisoner-swapped and then you came’.’’

Ms Zahab said DFAT officials had been in the camp as recently as September last year.

“They spoke to four of us,’’ she said.

“My son was born in the camp and he turned four this year.

“I’m ready to go home, ready to start life all over again. Ready to give my son the life he deserves.’’